The Position of Madrasas in the Development of Transoxiana Islamic Culture (Case Study: Mir Arab Madrasa in Bukhara (1553-1880))

Mir Arab Madrasa was built in 1553 A.d by Seyyed Abdullah Yemeni Hadramauti, nicknamed Mir Arab, one of the sheikhs of the Naqshbandiyya sect, and Friday prayer leader of Bukhara during the reign of Obaidullah Khan Sheibani (r. 1534-1539). Mir Arab granted the finance of Madrasa by trading Iranian slaves, captivated in the battle of Ghazdewan. Soon, it became an important center for religious higher education along with other Madrasas in Bukharaand students of religious sciences from all over the Muslim-populated areas of Russia and other neighboring towns entered Bukhara to continue their studies. Many Muslims of that territory were breaking into Madrasa of Bukhara, passing Postgraduate and returning to their homeland as an imam or a Khatib in Madrasa or mosques. Namely, Tatar, Hafizuddin Bernagwi, accepted the offer of Khatib in 1850A.d/1267A.d also Ali Mufti  bin Walid, was originally from Semey, Kazakhstan and graduate of Bukhara Madrasa, appointed as Kokand’s mufti in 1865A.D/1282A.H. Many Tatar and Bashkir scholars who studied in Bukhara became known as “Bukharais” after returning to their homeland. In addition to the significant credit they presented to their community, they also enjoyed a privileged social and saintly status. The educated youth of Kazan found promoters in capitalists, to train scholastics in the way they had been taught themselves. Till the end of Emir Mohammed Alim Khan’s rule, coincident with the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, the Mir Arab Madrasas were held on (from 1910-1920 A.D/ 1329-1339A.H). During the Soviet Union era, after the fall of Bukhara by the red army, the mentioned Madrasa like the other seminaries was closed in years till 1945A.D following parley between the head office of Muslim clergies in central Asia and Kazakhstan and the ruling party reopened in 1946 A.D. Traditional national architecture is peculiar to this building a square yard surrounded by two floors of cells, two big domed halls in the left and right corners. Two-store loggias that are adjoining the main façade in the center highlighted with a portal. The inner yard is adorned with composed carved mosaic. In the center of the madrasa, there is a shrine of Ubaydulla emir of Bukhara, who had ruled the city from 1533 to 1540 A.D. At the head of the building, you will see a burial place of the spiritual guide of the khan Miri Arab, whose honor the building got its name.
Life in the Mir Arab SCHSA began with the private study of several brief tracts: Awwal-i ‘ilm , a short track that covered the essential requirements (zururiyat) of Islam in a question-and-answer format; Bidan, an exposition of the basic rules of Arabic grammar in Persianand Adab-i muta’allimin, which covered the adab of the student. After that, the student read Sharh-i Mulla, a commentary on Ibn Hajib’s Kafiya (which the student had already studied) by Abdurrahman Jami, the Timurid poet; written in Arabic, this was the first book studied with a mudarris. At the same time, the student started studying formal logic with an assistant teacher, using the Shamsiya of Najmuddin Qazvini (d.1276); when he was ready, he moved on to the Hashiya-yi Qutbi, a commentary on Shamsiya; concurrently with the Hashiya, the student was introduced to theology (‘Ilm-i kalam ) through the ‘Aqa‘id of Abu Hafs Nasafi (d. 1142), which he read with an assistant teacher. Later, the student moved to various glosses on this book. These were followed by the Tahzib ul-Mantiq wa’l kalam , a tract on logic and dogma by Sa’duddin Taftazani (d. 1381); Hikmat ul-‘ayn by Qazvini, a tract on natural science and metaphysics; Mulla Jalal, a commentary by Jalaluddin Dawwami (d. 1502) on the ‘Aqa‘id ul-adudiyat of Abdurrahman b. Ahmad al-Iji (d. 1356), a tract on Muslim beliefs. There was no formal termination of studies in the madrasa and many students lingered on for decades. The core texts, however, could be mastered in nineteen years. Formal lessons took place four days a week. The entire study group assembled; a designated reader (qari, elected by the students) read out the passage to be discussed; the mudarris then translated the passage (if necessary) and proceeded to explain and comment on it; a disputation involving the students concluded the lesson. There was no compulsion to take courses at the madrasa of residence; indeed, at many madrasas no lectures were held at all. A student was free to learn from any professor in the city. The Madrasa year, lasting from September to March, was short, allowing students to work productively in the summer. Indeed, many students left Bukhara for their villages in October to gather the harvest. At the same time, sons of Ulama began madrasa education with a distinct advantage in cultural capital and wealthy students could always hire others to tutor them.
This article intends to answer this question by using historical and archival sources and in a descriptive-analytical manner looks for what role have Bukhara Madrasas played in the spread of Trans-Islamic culture? Therefore, to respond to this question, Mir Arab Madrasa, which is considered to be the most important and largest Madrasa in Bukhara, has been chosen as a case study. Hence, the prominent position of Bukhara Madrasas in the spread of transcendental Islamic culture will be explained.  The research results show that the Madrasas of Bukhara, of which Mir Arab Madrasa is an example, have been the center of protection of the discourse of the Islamic tradition of this land. Moreover, these people played an important and effective role in propagating and spreading Islamic culture among the Turkish and Tatar peoples of the Qabchaq Plain and protecting the Islamic identity of these people against the domination of Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union.